


you don't know where you are, until you arrive

by xshe



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 01:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3917821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xshe/pseuds/xshe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was the exact opposite of where Dorian needed this conversation to head. "Maybe you should just tell him." he insisted, and the corners of her lips turned down.</p><p>Alternately: Cullen eavesdrops - Dorian knows. Trevelyan doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you don't know where you are, until you arrive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [enmourne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmourne/gifts).



"So... how about our handsome Commander?"  
  
He hadn't thought it actually possible for a man as pale as Cullen to go even whiter, but there he was, white as Vivienne's 2 million thread count Orlesian sheets and frozen in place on the top level of the tower. Dorian had just enough time to wink at Cullen's dark scowl before he relaxed his face and looked at the woman next to him - incredibly casually, might he add.  
  
"Handsome, indeed. What about him?"  
  
Cullen's face went slack out of the corner of his eye before his form backed up and out of eyesight. He'd caught on, then. Good man.  
  
"You like him."  
  
"So?" Trevelyan finally, _finally_ turned from the bookshelf she'd been studying to look at him with a bored expression. For someone allegedly gifted to Thedas by the Maker's hand, she really didn't seem too enthusiastic.  
  
"So... does he know?"  
  
"I... don't think he's interested." She sighed and came to lean next to him on the railing, clasping her hands together in front of her.  
  
Dorian didn't have to fake the surprise in his voice. "Why not?" Idiots, all of them.  
  
"I dunno." Trevelyan scuffed her boot toe on the floor, voice uncharacteristically hesitant. "I flirted with him a lot, and he's always very polite and kind but he's never really... seemed to reciprocate. I mean, one time I asked if anyone had interested him and he said 'not in Kirkwall' and I had thought maybe he meant me but," she seemed to deflate, "I think I was wrong."  
  
Dorian fought to keep from frowning at her. "Maybe he just isn't sure if you're actually flirting with him? Fereldens are notoriously dense." He heard a quiet grunt from somewhere above him and very, very carefully didn't laugh.  
  
"He knows. I haven't exactly been subtle. I asked him if he'd taken vows of chastity."  
  
"You didn't!" gasped Dorian, scandalized.  
  
"I did!" she laughed, and set her head in her hands. "Awful, I know. I haven't exactly had much experience at this."  
  
This was the exact opposite of where Dorian needed this conversation to head. "Maybe you should just _tell him_." he insisted, and the corners of her lips turned down.  
  
"No, no. I can't just... I can't. It's different than if I just... It'd be different than if he approached me. I know he was one of the ones that appointed me to this position, but what if he feels pressured because I'm technically his boss? I don't want to harass him or anything... especially not on the off chance he's into horsefaced Marchers with big ears."  
  
That should do it. Goal met, despite the unhelpful participants, Dorian graciously allowed the change of subject. "Big ears? Do you really? I've never seen them."  
  
"I do!" she wailed and clapped her hands on the sides of her head. "The other day Cassandra asked why I didn't keep my hair out of my face. I showed her and all she said was 'Oh, dear.' Dorian! I have Oh Dear ears! Look!"  
  
Dorian fought valiantly, heroically, with the strength of a million men to keep from laughing - and failed spectacularly."Well... they're not small," he wheezed out.

Trevelyan was unable to keep herself from laughing along with him and dropped her hair back into place. "I look like a damned fennec! My brothers used to yell 'Hey Evie! Shut the doors on that head!' until I cried." Dorian laughed even harder until they were both breathless. "They're truly awful."  
  
"Oh, our poor Inquisitor. Speaking of awful, however, that is exactly what tomorrow's ride out is going to be if we don't get to sleep. It's past midnight."  
  
"True enough." Trevelyan smiled and stretched her hands above her head as she started towards the exit. "Thanks for the laugh, Dorian," she called out as she with her hand on the door, "I needed it, even if it was at my expense."  
  
"Of course, my dear. Do have a good rest." She smiled gently, and the door closing was loud in the almost-empty tower.  
  
Dorian cracked his back and leaned to put the last books of away - the damned bookkeeper would harp at him for hours if he left the books out - until he heard a quiet scuffle above him, and stilled, expectant.  
  
"Dorian?"

"Yes, my good man?"  
  
"Thanks."

"Anytime."

He heard the door close from above him, and moments later, Dorian followed through, whistling. 

**Author's Note:**

> [also posted to my tumblr: neosolas](http://hawkegirl1993.tumblr.com/post/118679096794/you-dont-know-where-you-are-until-you-arrive)


End file.
